GFA to file complaint at FIFA against Zambia for their conductlast Friday

• Posted on September 9, 2013
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Association (GFA) will be submitting a formal report against Zambia, for their conduct before the World Cup qualifier last Friday.

In the days leading to their 2-1 defeat in Kumasi, a result which qualified the Black Stars to the final round stage, the Zambians made false reports in the media that maligned Ghana’s integrity and eroded the purpose of fair-play.

Apart from claiming that Ghana frustrated their attempts to fly directly into Kumasi, they also reported that the Chipolopolo, who arrived on the eve of the match, were prevented from training at the match venue.

Kwesi Nyantakyi, President of the Ghana Football Association confirmed that the sport body will submit their complaint to FIFA over the provocative reports by their guest.

“FIFA is already aware, but we will send a formal report,” Kwesi Nyantakyi said.

“The strategy to impugn the integrity of Ghana, to malign the good record of hospitality services to our guest did not work. There were reports that the Zambians had been refused a landing permit in Kumasi, when Zambia knew that Kumasi was not an international airport, they wanted to land there direct from Zambia. There was also reports that Ghana did not offer them the opportunity to train before the match, when under the FIFA rules, they were suppose to train the same time as the match and at the same venue as the match. In fact, the match time which was 4pm at the Baba Yara, they didn’t turn up, they rather chose to turn-up at 6:30pm and when they were refused entry because it was not even visible at that time, they decided to train on the asphalt at the stadium and that was not acceptable. All this were their own doing.

According to Nyantakyi, the GFA was just focused on the game rather than actions of the Zambians.

“They wanted to draw attention from the match and disturb our focus and preparation towards the game. What we did was to concentrate on the game, insulate players and technical team members from those malicious campaigns and make sure we prepared enough for the game. We succeeded in getting our team tuned properly for the game and eventually winning the game.”

“We ignored them to their peril. We ignored all the provocations to the point where we decided not to talk about it. Our team was focused; we scored the needed goals; we got the maximum points to land us in the play-off stage.

“We are very experienced in this enterprise, business-like and very focused and professional in our approach, and we will continue with this way and I hope we will qualify to the World Cup,” he said.